We Need to Shorten Time It Takes to Become a Doctor

Slate columnist thinks 14 years is too long

(Newser)
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We're going to need more doctors in coming years, but our current system of producing them is too long and expensive, writes Brian Palmer in Slate. Factor in college, medical school, and the requisite fellowships and residencies, and the average US physician spends 14 years in training. That's too long, writes Palmer, who argues that the last time the medical community seriously revamped its education process was more than a century ago. It was necessary then, in the wake of the Civil War when scores of poorly trained doctors were unleashed upon the masses. But times have changed.

It's time to experiment, writes Palmer, who runs through a number of suggestions—ditch the last year of medical school, do away with lengthy lab and clinical research projects, and give medical students the chance to accelerate the process on their own are among them. One big problem is that there's been so little experimentation on the subject that we're "in an evidence vacuum." Doctors should "turn the microscopes on themselves and their own training, and accept that the system that produced them may be imperfect," writes Palmer. Click for the full column.

They should do it like our driver's license training program. That seems to work well.

codenameradical

Mar 17, 2014 7:08 AM CDT

I think less time stuck in school is always preferable, but it wouldn't be something to take lightly. I've seen dozens of doctors for chronic issues that ... in the end they couldn't figure out. I'm still seeing doctors about it. Maybe if we had a better healthcare system (single payer) doctors could worry less about procedure approval and getting sued and so on. And in those systems, doctors are generally encouraged to help people rather than perform a number of procedures. Maybe then the view of healthcare people have would change, both from better experiences with doctors, and from /more/ experiences with doctors (since many can't afford to go, they might consider it more with more exposure).

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